Tax on unhealthy food

Created by:

9 Jul 2016 - General

This is in context with the recent regulation passed by the state of Kerala in India. Kerala state boasts of highest literacy rate and lowest maternal and infant mortality rate in India. In the recent budget session, Kerala state government announced its decision to levy a 14.5% Fat tax on foods like pizza, burgers, etc. which are sold in restaurants.

This move by the state Government of Kerala is a significant move in terms of the thought process which as gone behind it. In the medical community we all know the hazards of junk foods and we can only stare in despair at the growing popularity of such foods amongst the young generation. This move of taxing unhealthy foods is probably the first one of its kind in India and it will set a precedent which will be emulated (hopefully) by several other authorities.

I think that there was a similar sugar tax on sweet and sugary foods being levied in England because of the growing epidemic of obesity over there. However this tax is the first one of its kind in India. Does such type of a tax exist anywhere else? This is the link to the article:

I think the same is being planned for my county, for soft drinks. We, actually, already have a lot of tax and taxation is a pretty big issue here in the Philippines but I really think something like this is a good thing. When we were living in the UK, my mom was a smoker back then, but tax on cigarettes make them incredibly priced, and therefore they become some hard-to-reach luxury. It does not exactly prevent people from smoking, but the high tax, is like a speed bump. Putting a tax on jun...

Neither in Sri Lanka do we have a tax system like that in which junk food is taxed more than regular healthy food items. We are taxed for everything we eat regardless of its good or bad long term effects on the wellbeing of the consumers. The decision to apply a higher tax on unhealthy food is a very impressive move by the Indian government and is something I believe should be implemented in more countries. As Marinelle pointed out, the more expensive the item, the less the chance of someone buy...

If I am not wrong, it has been done Mexico( Not sure if it is still present). Although tax has been said has been said to be a suitable solution for the obesity problem. There are some issues we have to ponder about. The food which are suggested are the ones which are consumed by the middle to lower middle income groups which form a bulk of the voting bloc. I don’t think it can be easily carried out. How would it be possible to stamp out the smuggling that this will bring up?( This is because su...

In the Philippines, so far we don't have higher taxes for junk food and fatty foods yet. However, it has been three years since our government passed a bill on SIN tax, wherein alcohol and tobacco products have additional excise taxes. This is good because less people indulge in such vices. It has become so expensive that fewer people can afford these products. Back then I was still a smoker and I remember that they doubled the price of cigarettes (which made me smoke less). A lot of the rev...